The Siege of AR-558 (episode)
---- During a supply run to AR-558, Sisko finds the defending Starfleet unit with over two thirds of the troops dead and the remaining soldiers morale to be extremely low. When the Defiant comes under attack, Sisko, Bashir, Dax, Nog, and Quark are forced to remain on the planet, which is about to come under attack by a much larger contingent of Jem'Hadar soldiers. Summary In Vic Fontaine's, Rom auditions for a "gig", singing The Lady is a Tramp – and not very well. Vic Fontaine tries to let him down easy, reminding Rom that he is not a hologram, as Dr. Bashir enters the lounge. The doctor retrieves a recording Vic has made for him. Meanwhile, Captain Sisko and Odo are in the wardroom, where Sisko laments the ever-growing list of casualties from the Dominion War. He mentions to Odo that at the start of the war, he tried to memorise the names of the fallen, as to pay tribute to them, but as the list grew, the names seemed to blur together. Kira interrupts them over the comm to inform Sisko that the is ready. Quark mopes aboard the mess hall of the Defiant, wondering why Grand Nagus Zek would want him to go on a "fact-finding mission" to the front lines of the war. Ezri tries to comfort him, believing the Nagus wants a Ferengi perspective of the war. Unfortunately, her efforts to cheer him up are in vain, and even more so as the ship shakes from Dominion fire. It seems that the Dominion wants the Chin'toka system back badly because a valuable communication relay that could be used to tap into Dominion communications is on one of the planets. Quark nervously enters the bridge, embarrassing his nephew Nog in his nervousness. When the Defiant reaches AR-558, Sisko relinquishes command to Worf and he, Ezri, Bashir, Quark, and Nog beam down to the planet's barren surface. Once there, they come under immediate fire. A brief phaser fight ensues, but the fighting stops as Lieutenant Nadia Larkin orders the men to hold their fire. It seems Vargas, who believes they are all doomed, is a bit of a hothead. He opened fire as he mistook the crew for Jem'Hadar. The troops have been stranded for five months, despite Starfleet Medical's limit of 90 days, and of 150 soldiers, only 43 are left. The other 107 have been killed either by enemy fire or Houdinis, anti-personal mines that hide in subspace and appear at random. When the Defiant is forced to leave while coming under attack by Jem'Hadar fighters, Sisko's conscience kicks in and he informs Worf that they intend to stay. As the commanding officer on the ground, Sisko now has only one order: hold. Jem'Hadar soldiers later beam down and attack, but something is wrong; they do not fire, and they seem to walk into the line of enemy volleys, ignorant of their casualties. Sisko orders his men to hold as he realizes the Dominion trickery. Almost immediately, the attackers vanish. The soldiers weren't real; they were holograms intended to assess the enemy strength without firing a shot. Between that and Houdini mines, things are looking grim. Nog is ordered to accompany Larkin and Lieutenant Reese to attempt to find the Jem'Hadar encampment. Quark doesn't like Captain Sisko sending his nephew into danger, to which the captain responds by reminding Quark that Nog is simply doing his duty. Quark argues that Sisko would never send Jake out there. The captain is getting sick of Quark and angrily responds that his son is not a Starfleet officer, but this argument doesn't convince Quark. Using his lobes, Nog succeeds in his mission, but as the three head back to friendly lines they come under enemy fire. Larkin is killed, and Nog is shot directly in the leg. Back at camp, Reese helps Nog back to camp, where Doctor Bashir examines Nog. Sisko waits anxiously for news, when Quark comes out furious with Sisko that his nephew is going to lose his leg. Later, Doctor Bashir is able to successfully remove Nog's leg to prevent further injury, but whether it can be regenerated is unclear; he needs to visit a Starfleet Medical facility. The captain goes to visit Nog in his hospital bed and congratulates him on a job well done. Nog asks if the relay is worth it. Sisko replies that he hopes it is. Sisko looks at Nog's missing limb, and the Ferengi comments optimistically that although it seems the wound would hurt, it doesn't. There is some good news for the officers as Ezri and Kellin find a way to reveal the Houdinis' locations. Once it is put into effect, hundreds of the dreaded killers pop out throughout the defenders' positions. As Sisko prepares to use them against the Jem'Hadar, the irony of the situation is not lost on Ezri. Previously, the Starfleet officers had considered the Houdinis the type of weapon that only the Dominion would use, but now they seem a lot friendlier. When the Jem'Hadar finally come, the Houdinis perform their function, and when the remaining Jem'Hadar come charging toward the encampment, everyone is affected as the battle dissolves into melee combat. In the resulting fighting, Vargas and Kellin are killed. Even Quark is forced to kill a Jem'Hadar in defense of Nog. Sisko is knocked out and the last thing he sees is a Jem'Hadar soldier standing over him with a disruptor. When he awakens, Reese is standing over him, asking if he is okay. Sisko gets up, and looks around. Many of the officers he knew are now dead, and there are few soldiers left, but as he puts it, "We held." The Defiant returns to AR-558 along with the , which will pick up the survivors and transport the injured officers as well as Nog and Bashir to Starbase 371. Also, a fresh batch of officers are being brought in. Reese notes that the newcomers are young, to which Sisko responds that they'll grow up. Back aboard DS9, the next casualty list comes in. When Sisko asks how many, Kira replies the number is 1730, including those lost on AR-558. Feeling the weight of his recent experiences, Sisko makes sure to remember that the names on the list are more than names, telling Kira they must not forget them. Memorable quotes "You know, pally? Some times being a hologram can be a real pain in the asymmetric photons." : - Vic Fontaine "Sir, what are your orders?" "There's only one order, Lieutenant. We hold." : - Larkin and Benjamin Sisko "We held." "Those were our orders, sir." : - Benjamin Sisko and Reese "I'm sorry captain, but I'm an engineer, not a magician." : - Kellin (See also: I'm a doctor, not a...) "Welcome to paradise, captain." : - Larkin sarcastically remarking about the situation. "Children." "Not for long." : - Reese and Sisko as the relief troops arrive. "The communications array, it was worth it, right?" "I hope to God it is." : - Nog and Benjamin Sisko "They're not just names, it's important we remember that. We ''have to remember..." : - Benjamin Sisko "Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, nephew. They're a wonderful, friendly people – as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts... deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers... put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time... and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people will become as nasty and violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don't believe me? Look at those faces, look at their eyes..." : - Quark "Well, haven't you got anything to say?" "I feel sorry for the Jem'Hadar." : - Quark and Nog Background information * This episode is loosely based on the which was fought by the and the from August 1942 to February 1943. The battle is generally considered to be a turning point of World War II in the Pacific, as due to its geographical position, the island of had huge strategic significance. David Weddle's father had fought with the during the battle, and according to Weddle, "Those men and women stopped something incredibly evil, and when they came back, there was no talk about post-traumatic stress syndrome or therapy groups. They won, but it changed their whole lives. Ira and Hans really tried to capture the essence of that." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) 's 1998 film (which is loosely based on the 1962 novel of the same name) is a dramatization of the battle, and was released a few weeks after "The Siege of AR-558" aired. The film deals with very similar issues to the episode; choosing to focus on the dehumanizing effects of war rather than the war itself, and positing that psychological injuries can be just as bad as anything physical. * Although episodes such as , , , and generated a great deal of controversy amongst fans, according to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, "The Siege of AR-558" generated more back-stage controversy than any other ''Deep Space Nine'' show. According to Ira Steven Behr, "a lot of people didn't want us to do the episode, and a lot of people were unhappy it was being developed. But I felt that we needed to do it. War sucks. War is intolerable. War is painful, and good people die. You win, but you still lose. And we needed to show that as uncompromisingly as possible. War isn't just exploding ships and special effects." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) This episode acts as culmination of sorts to the exploration of the real horrors of war, as seen in the fifth season episodes and . Both of those episodes deal with the very real consequences of war, acknowledging the real men and women behind the list of names, and they both emphasize the sense of loss inherent in war. "The Siege of AR-558" does likewise, but in perhaps an even darker vein than the two previous episodes. Another episode with this theme is the sixth season episode , where Sisko also finds himself troubled by casualty reports. on the set of "The Siege of AR-558"]] * Director Winrich Kolbe had fought in the , and he allowed his knowledge of combat to influence his direction of the episode; "The images you see are trenches of churned-up dirt. The battleground always looked like there was absolutely nothing there that anyone could ever want. Yet people were blowing each other to smithereens over this land. I wanted AR-558 to be that type of battleground, a totally non-descript piece of real estate that didn't deserve one drop of blood to be shed for it. It shouldn't say anything to the eye or the mind except that we were there because somebody had decided to put a relay station on this rock." Kolbe goes on to say, "We wanted the siege scene in "AR-558" to convey the psychological impact, and not come across like a shoot-em-up. What I remember from is sitting in a ditch somewhere and waiting. It's the waiting that drives you nuts. You know they're coming. You can hear them. You can feel them. When you have to wait, your mind plays tricks on you, and you hear things and you see things, like Vargas, who's about to explode. Once the battle starts, your adrenaline kicks in and you have an objective. But when you have to wait, time just slows down to a crawl." Kolbe felt that the battle for AR-558 had a great deal of similarity with the 1968 , a battle which was won by the Americans, but the strategic significance of which is still debated to this day. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) * The writers specifically chose Nog, Ezri, Quark and Bashir as the central characters for this episode because they had the least fighting experience. Characters like Kira, Worf and O'Brien were purposely left out of the fighting, as they all had combat experience and knew how to handle themselves in such a situation. The writers however were more keen on seeing the reactions of people who didn't know how to handle themselves. * The characters of Reese and Kellin were seen by the writers as extremely important from a thematic point of view; as Behr explains of Reese, "This guy was wearing ketracel-white tubes around his neck, which was about as grisly as we could get on ''Star Trek. His way of getting through this ordeal was to depend on his knife. At the end of the show we had him throw the knife down. Maybe he doesn't need the crutch anymore, but he's pretty far gone. I think he's going to need some twenty-fourth-century reconditioning. I knew Kellin would provide me with the alternative to Reese. The hard-as-nails guy who gives up his humanity lives, but Kellin, the decent guy, dies. War is very cruel''." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) * Nog loses his leg in this episode, thus setting up a future arc for the character. His recovery is depicted in . According to Ronald D. Moore, in the original story, Nog was to lose both his legs, but Rick Berman argued for a less severe loss, which is why Nog lost only one leg. http://movies.ign.com/articles/444/444306p1.html Nevertheless, Aron Eisenberg is a big fan of this episode and the effect it had on the character; "Nog had been a gung-ho soldier who thought nothing could happen to him. He wanted to be Starfleet, and be the best because only the best could become captain. So no matter what he saw, no matter how many people he saw die, he was like a train that just kept going. Then he got hit. I played him as if he were in shock, but the first thought that would come into his head is, 'Oh my God, I could ''die.'" (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) * The scene where Quark describes to Nog what happens when Humans' creature comforts are taken away is one of Armin Shimerman's favorite scenes he has ever performed on the show; "''The finest moment for Quark was the episode "The Siege of AR-558". They were beautiful comments, and I was honored to make them." (Crew Dossier: Quark, DS9 Season 6 DVD, Special Features) Behr calls Quark "the moral consciousness" of the episode. According to Shimerman, "I'm very proud of this episode. ''Star Trek is a franchise about people who, for the most part, belong to the Federation, and it's usually the Humans that the show centers on. But in this episode, they allowed me to express an 'other-than-Federation' point of view. I got to do something that was Spock-like, in the sense that Spock, as an outsider, could comment about Humanity''." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) * Of the music in this episode, associate producer Terri Potts explains, "We wanted to mix the battle sounds ''under the music, so I went to Rick Berman and told him what we wanted to do. He said, 'Okay, but make it sad.' Paul wrote the music without looking at any footage. It wasn't about hitting any story points in particular, it was about creating a mood''." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) * Ira Behr was extremely happy with the way the episode ultimately turned out. He was especially pleased with how the Starfleet personnel come to use the weapons of the enemy which they had previously condemned as vile; "We were very passionate about this episode. These horrible Houdini mines, these vicious mines - suddenly ''we're using them. The whole idea of 'God is on our side' in war is such a strange concept, but it's used all the time. Nobody is clean in war''." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) * The song which Bashir plays while awaiting the Jem'Hadar attack is " ", written in 1938 by and , and which became one of the most popular songs during the Second World War. The song would go on to have great significance in the episode , which deals with Nog's convalescence, and which also features a scene from just before the final battle on AR-558 not seen in this episode, where Nog asks Bashir what the name of the song is. * AR-558 itself takes its name from the production number of the episode. * Bill Mumy, who plays Kellin, is another regular to appear in Deep Space Nine. Mumy had always wanted to appear on the show, but held out until he was allowed to play a human (he had repeatedly been asked to appear as an alien). * Several of the soldiers' names are borrowed from the 1962 film (Reese for example is named after the character and Larkin after the character). * In the sequence where the Defiant crew beams to the surface of AR-558, director Kolbe wanted the actors to crouch behind cover, intending them to materialize in that position. Nicole de Boer raised the point that "nobody ever beams in crouched down". Despite Kolbe's desire to shoot the scene as he had planned, de Boer maintained her position, and suggested the production office be contacted. The office subsequently confirmed the precedent, and Kolbe adapted the shot accordingly. (''Star Trek Monthly'' issue 64) ** Spock would later beam down to the surface of a dying Vulcan in a crouching position in the 2009 Star Trek movie. * The Chin'toka system was captured by the Federation, Klingon Defense Forces and Romulan Star Empire in the First Battle of Chin'toka, as seen in the episode . * Reese's necklace of ketracel-white tubes taken from dead Jem'Hadar is similar to the necklace of Cardassian neckbones worn by the Klingon soldier Leskit in . * Aron Eisenberg (Nog), Patrick Kilpatrick (Reese) and director Winrich Kolbe had previously worked together in the Star Trek: Voyager episode , where Eisenberg and Kilpatrick played Kazons. * Referenced Rules of Acquisition: #34 ("War is good for business") and #125 ("You can't make a deal if you're dead") * Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko) does not appear in this episode. Rene Auberjonois (Odo) appears only in the first scene, while Nana Visitor (Kira) appears only in the final scene. Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 7.4, . *As part of the DS9 Season 7 DVD collection. Links and references Guest stars *Raymond Cruz as Vargas *Patrick Kilpatrick as Reese *Aron Eisenberg as Nog *Annette Helde as Nadia Larkin *Max Grodénchik as Rom Special guest stars *Bill Mumy as Kellin *James Darren as Vic Fontaine Uncredited co-stars *Brian Hite (stunt actor) *Chester E. Tripp III (stunt actor) References anti-personnel mine; AR-558; asometric photon; Bashir 62; biosynthetic limb; Chin'toka system; coil spanner; column; comedian; communication array; ''Defiant'', USS; Dominion; Dominion War; duonetic coupler; evasive maneuvers; Ferengi Alliance; frequency discriminator; God; hologram; hospital; "Houdinis"; I'll Be Seeing You; isodyne relay; isolinear rod; Jem'Hadar; Jem'Hadar fighter; Ketracel White; Lady is a Tramp, The; Loomis; mail order; McGreevey; microdyne coupler; music; optronic relay; Parker; phase amplifier; phaser rifle; raktajino; replicator; Rules of Acquisition; sonic shower; Starbase 371; Starfleet Regulations; subspace; subspace mine; tricorder; USO; ''Veracruz'', USS; vole; Zek External links * * |next= }} de:Die Belagerung von AR-558 es:The Siege of AR-558 nl:The Siege of AR-558 Siege of AR-558, The